Leica IIIf and Nikkor H 50 F2 lens.

 Somewhere, a Leica purist is having a seizure at the thought of a non Leica lens is on something as storied as a IIIf, in this case a Nikkor H 50 F2 lens in M39 screw mount. Nippon Kogaku long before making the Nikon F and even before making their version of the Zeiss Ikon Contax rangefinders, of course simplifying in some areas like the shutter, and improving apon others. Nippon Kogaku also made lenses not only the S-mount for their range finders but also in M39 Leica screw mount. A lot of third party lenses got made with that particular lens mount. 

So the legend goes war photographers working in Korea discovered Nikkor glass while on leave in Tokyo and found them to be steller performers. i've shot with the S mount version of this lens and the F mount descendent and been super pleased with the results. My Nikkor H 50 F2 came with a Canon 7S and a Canon 100 F3.5 lens, running a Nikkor lens on a Canon body just felt, weird, on a Leica screw mount body or with an adapter on say my M3, much more normal for some reason. We'll talk about the Canon 7S on an upcoming post. 

The big joy with the Nikkor H 50 F2 aside from the performance, it's just much easier to use than the 50 F3.5 Elmar lens, which is awsome glass in its own right but changing aperture can be a lot fiddlier than it has to be. The Nikkor H is much easier to use on photo walks where changing depth of field on the fly is more critical. 

Camera: Leica IIIf, Nikkor H "Black Belt" 50 F2 Leica Thread Mount Lens. 

Film: Kodak Color Plus 200.